Revolut merges mobile banking with cryptocurrency trading

Revolut is merging traditional banking and cryptocurrency to let you buy, sell, trade, and hold Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether alongside 25 world fiat currencies. The $90 million-funded mobile banking startup is trying to erase the divide between old and new money.

Revolut‘s CEO Nikolay Storonsky announced on stage today at TechCrunch’s Disrupt Berlin conference that cryptocurrency trading will open to all Revolut users on Thursday. If you’re spending money through Revolut’s debit card and run out of fiat currency, it will automatically convert the necessary amount of cryptocurrency to fiat to fund your transaction.

“Despite being one of the hottest trends in the world right now, getting exposure to cryptocurrency has notoriously been time-consuming and expensive,” Storonsky writes.

The move comes as cryptocurrency becomes increasingly legitimate in the eyes of the world, following bitcoin blowing past $10,000 per coin, and traditional futures exchanges preparing to allow bitcoin futures trading this month.

While cryptocurrency could be seen as a niche distraction from Revolut’s core business, but Storonsky feels that crypto is going mainstream and will quickly become a critical part of all banking. He cited that during Revolut’s week-long crypto beta test, 10,000 customers traded $1 million in cryptocurrency.